Online lessons could be where we go, but how do they actually work? Let me walk you through it.
Before the lesson:
If you’ve taken lessons before, or are transitioning from in-person lessons, your teacher may ask you to email to northpeacepianoonline@gmail.com the last lesson notes or pages of what you’re working on. This is so that your teacher can see where you left off, and have a baseline to pick up from.
We can do a tech check if you’d like - just to make sure that everything’s working as it needs to and the device is positioned as needed, audio and video are working as expected, etc - and to take any mystique out of doing online lessons. Let us know if you’d like this!
The student and instrument should be in a quiet place and time where they are unlikely to be interrupted during their lesson (in a room away from siblings playing, etc).
Set up your device. If you want to see how, see this blog post.
For those who are in a Conservatory program, they should listen to songs in their book beforehand when it’s time to choose a song, so that they know what they want to work on. This saves lesson time to actually work on it.
Have all your materials ready 5 minutes before the lesson (sheet music, notebook/notes, pencil, pens, device fully charged or plugged in, turned on) so that we can get started right away.
When it’s time for your lesson, your teacher will call you.
During the lesson:
You will go through the lesson. The student / parent will be marking in the books. The teacher will instruct/show you how to do it.
The teacher will write notes and either send you a CamScan of this week’s notes or it will be in a Google Doc. We will have a shared online folder with you to keep everything organized. You’ll be able to access that for practicing.
The student / parent can also feel free to write notes!
If the parent is usually present during in-person lessons, we’d recommend them to be present during online lessons. If they’re not usually present, we’d prefer that they’re at least around the house so that if any techy issue comes up, there’s an adult to mitigate it.
After the lesson:
From time to time, your teacher may ask for a pic/CamScan of the pages the student is working on.
Like in-person lessons, we’d recommend parent involvement and for you to look through the online notes and support the student.
There are new exercises that have been made possible by the creative and now rapidly growing online music learning community that it will be possible to take part in! Online assignments and challenges are fun and engaging for students, especially those who spend a great deal of spare time on technology as is, making it a creative and inspiring experience instead of just consuming technology.
If you’re wondering how exactly to set up, see this blog post.
As always, if you have any other questions at all, feel free to ask!